Changes
by DemiBoyDoesStuff
Summary: Being trapped in a post apocalyptic dimension is hard. Six is doing well, Rex not so much. Luckily Dr. Holiday is here to bring them home.
1. Chapter 1

**this is 100% self indulgent and just for fun and very weird. just a warning.**

 ** _10/4/2284 Post-Atomic Mojave Desert_**

Six could see the New Vegas strip from where he was kneeling on the ground, it and the full moon where the only sources of light in the desert night. It still seemed too bright to Six, as his sunglasses had been lost in the scuffle when he was jumped. He returned his attention to his muggers, two punks in leather jackets and a surprisingly neat man in a checkered suit, he was definitely from the strip. The man examined the silver poker chip they had stolen from him, holding it up to the moonlight with one hand. The other held a shoddy looking pipe pistol, the kind of disposable weapon that junkies and wannabe raiders used. Or hitmen looking for a burner weapon. He couldn't believe that he was going to die like this, one month into living in the post apocalypse only to die at the hands of a badly dressed casino employee? Stupid. He could hear Dog shuffling around in the shallow grave they had dug for both of them, poor thing, it was only a puppy, it didn't deserve to die like this, hog tied and buried alive.

"You know," the man said, "it must feel like you've hit a run of bad luck," he raised the gun, and pressed the barrel against Six's forehead, right between his eyebrows, "but really, the cards were stacked from the start" he pulled the trigger.

 ** _7/20/2037 Providence_**

Nine months. Six and Rex had been gone for nine months. Six and Rex had been trapped in a different dimension for nine months. In that nine months she and Ceazar had worked around the clock to get to them again and when they finally, _finally,_ had what they needed to get to them, White Knight was denying the mission.

"We have everything set up, we just need your approval and we could be in and out of this dimension with Six and Rex with two trips within the week." Holiday argued

"Or you could die, you know the information you got back from your probe better than I do, I'm sure you noticed the high radiation, I'm not sending a team of my men to their death for the sake of one agent and an obsolete weapon." White argued back, his expression was carefully schooled into a dull blank look, his voice held no emotion. Holiday knew he wanted Six and Rex back too, how could he not? After all the time they spent together fighting Black Knight's Providence. But as the leader of providence he also had other things to worry about.

"Then I'll go alone," Holiday offered "I have a hazmat suit, I can start on with Six's location, there's almost no radiation there, once we have Six we have someone who knows how the world works over there, which will make finding Rex much easier. Besides, they're more than just agents at this point, they're icons, and the fact that they've disappeared is making the public antsy."

"Regardless, you're assuming either of them is even alive, you said yourself that their trackers aren't showing any movement,"

"We're tracking across an entire dimension, we can really only approximate a twenty-mile radius, it wouldn't be that unusual for them to stay within the area, that would make it seem like they weren't moving"

"It's a suicide mission," White said frankly, then, with a little bit of emotion creeping into his voice "I would rather not lose my top scientist."

"You'll lose me either way, I won't work for an organization that won't help its own." There is a tense silence, then Knight sighs.

"You have one week to produce results, start with Six, if you don't call in requesting pickup by then end of the week, we'll pull you out regardless of where you are, and if you don't have Six we won't be sending you in for Rex. I expect you to be ready for deployment by tomorrow, 07:00." Dr. Holiday tries to hide her relief, she hadn't really thought her bluff would work, but, well, White Knight still had a heart under all the politics.

 ** _7/21/2037 06:45 Providence_**

It was just her and Ceazar in his lab, prepping for the mission. Ceazar was adjusting his modified null-void generator while Dr. Holiday double and triple checked her supplies, she had a week and a half worth of rations, some water, all the supplies she should need for making more clean water, filters for her hazmat suit, along with backup supplies for repairs if she needed them, a journal and pencils, for keeping track of her findings, and of course, two Providence issued automatic pistols and ammunition. As much as White Knight claimed that he didn't support the mission, he was lenient with supplies. The most important things she had, however, where a tracker and a transmitter. If all went well, she could follow the tracker right to Six and use the transmitter to signal Ceazar to get them out of there.

"So just remember that it's an area of effect kind of thing, so be careful that you and Six are the only animals in a three-foot radius, or else you'll bring whatever else is around with you." Ceazar said,

"Ceazar, I know, I helped build it" she said

"I know, just trying to help,"

"Are you two ready?" White Knight asked, appearing on screen, ready for them to get started five minutes early. Holiday hefted her supplies onto her back and gave a nod.

"Ready whenever Ceazar is" she confirmed, as Ceazar checked all his readings again.

"We should be ready, I found a good entry point, so I can drop you in whenever you want, just stand in the clear area and we can start."

Holiday nodded, adjusted her mask, and stood where she was directed to. It was unsettling to have what appeared to be a giant gun pointed at her, but she took a deep breath and gave Ceazar a thumbs up. White Knight kept his stoic expression but just before Ceazar pulled the trigger he said probably the nicest thing he had ever said to her.

"I expect to see you again before the end of the week"

There was nothing in between the dimensions, no crash or bright light. It was just, one minute she was in the lab, and the next she was in the middle of the desert. She wondered if that was what it had been like for her boys, that would have been jarring.

She carefully took stock of her surroundings and was reminded of the time when she was a teenager and her family visited her grandma in Arizona. The landscape was hot, dry and boring. Rocks and sand and a few spiny cacti, it was, at least hilly, so she could count on shade if she walked in the valleys, not that it was too concerning right now, it was morning here too, and the sun was still low in the sky. The scientist part of her knew that she was probably in an ecologically rich and unique environment, but the part of her that had grown up on sci-fi movies and books and, heck even podcasts, couldn't help but to be disappointed.

There wasn't really time for disappointment though, the faster she could find Six, the more likely it would be that she would find him alive. So, she pulled out her tracker and headed east, further into the desert.

There was little to observe on the walk, the cacti looked just like the kind her grandma used to keep in her yard, which at least pushed Holiday to believe that this dimension wasn't totally different from her own. It was hot, but it was a desert. She saw what looked like a large lizard in the distance, but it wasn't in her way and she didn't want to try to get a closer look, so she simply let it be. It was almost half an hour of walking before she saw anything manmade.

It was a small, half buried air plane and a shack, both looked well over a hundred years old. Holiday had been worried just from the radiation that they had detected that this world was some kind of post-apocalyptic waste, and the sight of the rotting plane made her feel no better. She approached with caution, as, while the shack was missing a part of its southern wall, the plane looked like a good hideout. she heard something shuffling under the half-buried wing and pulled her gun. She was maybe five feet from the plane, when something charged her.

It barked and snapped but didn't come more than a foot from the plane, a coyote, just a coyote. It stood, apparently protecting its den, barking and howling, but unwilling to fight her. She quickly moved on.

There was a road not far from the abandoned plane and shack, and if those two things hadn't made her feel like she was the last person on earth, then the road did. It looked like it was once an expressway, two thick roads with a concrete divider in the middle, but what was left was mostly rubble, more markers of a road once having been there than anything functional. The street sign a little way down the road, however, was a relief, a sign of recent human habitation. There were three arrows, north, south, and down, which she took to be referring to the eastern dirt path that it faced. The sign was clearly being upkept, with the names of locations and the arrows having the appearance of being repainted several times, in a few colors that shown a bit from where the paint was wearing thin, the most recent being a sunny yellow, which looked silly where the last coat, a bright red, was starting to show through. It stated that to the south was Primm, the east Good Springs, and the north New Vegas. New Vegas, not Los Vegas. That was odd, but the sign had been repainted so many times, it only made sense that some things would be lost in translation.

Regardless, she was happy to see that her tracker was leading her towards a town, it made her feel like that made it a bit more likely that Six was still alive, even if should couldn't quite reason why.

The walk into town was largely uneventful, other than the dog sized lizard that hissed at her when she came a little to close. The town itself, in fact, was largely uneventful. It was clear that the town was inhabited, there where some oversized goats huddled under a pavilion in a livestock pen, there were crops that Dr. Holiday didn't really recognize in neat rows, there were houses and shops cobbled together from old buildings and recycled supplies where upkeep was clearly being done, but there were no people. To be fair, Dr. Holiday wouldn't have blamed them, in the time that it took her to walk here, the sun had come up fully, and she could feel it heating up. If she lived in a place like this she probably wouldn't come out during the day either. She would have stopped at the saloon (really a saloon like in a western), but her tracker said that she was almost to Six, so she decided to come back after she found him. She trekked past the giant goats, and the shops and the crops and the houses, past one particularly large house, and out past the small town.

The tracker lead her up a steep hill, then past a sign for a cemetery, she quickened her pace hoping that Six was just visiting someone. She jogged up the hill, the tiny cemetery came into view as she came to the top, and she broke into a run as she saw it was empty, she ran past the gate, glancing at all the barely marked graves. Then at something else. There was an empty one. A hole, maybe three feet deep at a maximum, when she looked down at her tracker, that was where it was pointed, she felt tentative hope as she hopped into the shallow grave, her tracker showing that she should be right on top of Six. She dropped to her knees and started groping around in the sand, hoping that she would find what she was looking for.

And she did. Under a layer of lose sand and pebbles there it was, Six's tracker, but no sign of Six. So, he could still be alive, but she would have to find him the hard way.


	2. Chapter 2

**has not been super cooperative recently so sorry about the HTML script**

 ** _10/5/2284 Good Springs_**

He heard the soft sound of a page turn, the creak of an old chair, and a soft sigh. He felt smooth, warm scales under his fingers, and a warm solid weight at the foot of his bed. The bed, really, it wasn't his. He opened his eyes a crack, then immediately shut them against the bright light. The chair creaked again and there was a hand on his arm.

"Hey there sunshine, you awake?" the voice sounded like that of an old man, gentle and kind. There was the thud of a book being closed as the weight at the end of the bed shifted. He gave a slow nod.

"You want to open your eyes for us?" the man asked

"Dim the lights." Six requested, propping himself up on his elbows.

"I'll get sheets for the windows, just give me a minute" came a much younger sounding voice at his feet, the bed shifted again as they got up "why don't you lie back down?" they requested, patting his leg. Six shook his head and stayed right where he was.

"Suit, yourself" they said. The sound of stockinged feet on wood floors let Six know they had left. There was a soft sigh and the creak of a chair. The scaled thing in his bed, Dog, crawled into his lap and curled up with a little yawn.

"So, how's it feel to come back from the dead?" the old man asked amicably

"Fine." Terrible actually he has a headache, he's incredibly thirsty and he's nauseous, but Six was too stubborn to admit that.

"I'm sure," he said, as the footsteps returned.

"Alright, let's get these windows covered." They said.

"I think you have that handled" the man said, the other scoffed softly but he could hear them climb on top of something wooden and the flapping of sheets, then the thud of them hopping back to the ground.

"Alright, my guy, I'm gonna need to get on the bed for the next one," they say

"That's fine." he says, not that it matters, as they're already climbing onto the bed. They step carefully over him and fiddle with the sheet.

"Ok," they say, sitting down at the foot of the bed again "you're good."

The sunlight that filters through the worn sheets illuminates the equally worn room. Like everything in this dimension, it has the grimy look of something that had been left untouched for decades and never adequately cleaned after being reenhabited, along with the mismatched look of a room that had been used for many very different things over the years. Its current function seems to be as a makeshift doctor's office. Dog, the coyote/rattlesnake hybrid that he had taken pity on was curled up in his lap, panting happily. At the foot of his bed a blond kid sat cross-legged, watching him curiously. Kid was a bit of an exaggeration, they looked college age, ragged red hoody and blue jeans included. The other man in the room sat in a creaky wooden chair next to the bed, he was older, as Six had thought, bald, and wrinkled, but face was just as friendly as his voice.

"On the _bright_ side," the kid said, smiling at their horrible pun "light sensitivity is a normal symptom of head injuries." Six nodded and decided not to mention that the light sensitivity was a preexisting condition.

"Sure is," the man agreed "so's memory loss, mind if I ask a few questions?"

"That's fine." Six said as he sat up completely. He glanced at the blond kid, who was making hand motions and faces at Dog before deciding to focus most of his attention on old man.

"Let's start with the easiest, what's your name?" he asked, leaning back in his chair.

Six deliberated for a moment as to weather or not he wants to tell this stranger his name, it was unlikely that there was a hit out on him though, as his attackers seemed far more interested in his package then him.

"Six" he answered, simply and to the point, Dog shifted in his lap, apparently the kid had successfully caught his attention. The man nodded,

"Nice to meet ya' then, I'm doctor Michaels, and the young man in your bed is Alexander" Six glanced at Alexander, he was glad for the clarification of gender, he wouldn't have been able to guess on his own.

"What's your familiar's name?" Alex asked, still focused on Dog, he pats his lap in an attempt to lure Dog over to him and holds his hands out flat in front of him when he takes notice and starts to clumsily waddle over.

"Dog." he said, although he wasn't sure what he meant by familiar, it was clear that he was referring to Dog.

"What a cutie," he said as Dog sniffed and licked his palms "can I pet?"

"Sure." Six said, maybe, if anything, he can at least make a bit of money from this situation selling the dumb, but friendly, animal. Alex smiles widely and strokes Dog's snake-like head, then moves onto his coyote like body.

"Where are you from?" the doctor asked

"Nowhere" Six said, his usual his usual answer,

"Hey, I think I've been through there!" Alex teased, Six only responded with a deadpan look.

"What's your job?" the doctor ignores Alex completely.

"courier" he answered.

"Ah, the dangerous life of the local mail man" Alex teased again, he kind of reminded Six of Rex.

"If you're just going to be disruptive, then find something else to do." Michaels said playfully, nodding towards the door, Alex shrugged and stood up.

"Sure, I wanted to make some tea anyway, want any?" he asked, Michaels declined, and normally Six didn't drink anything that anyone else prepared, but he was parched and tired. Besides, if these people wanted him dead, they had had a perfectly good opportunity when he was unconscious, so he said yes.

"Cool, cool, I'll hop on that, you want me to at least grab you a sarsaparilla, Doc?" he asked

"That would be nice yes," Alex nodded, gave them the OK sign, patted Dog's head and picked up his book before leaving the room once again. Dog being the idiot that he was, immediately fell off the bed trying to follow him.

"Just leave him." Six told Michaels.

"You know who the president of the NCR is?" Michaels asked, Six didn't even know what the NCR was so he just shrugged,

"I don't pay much attention to politics."

"That's fine," Michaels said "now, I'm gonna ask you to do some things to test motor skills, it's ok if you can't do certain things right now, it's to be expected"

All the things that Six was asked to do where simple and easy, and while Michaels was pleased to find he could do most of them, Six was not happy about how he had nearly poked his eye out when he had been asked to touch his nose or how much his hands shook when he held things. Dr. Michaels assured him that it was perfectly normal, and really, better than he had hoped, but Six didn't feel so pleased with himself.

"Well no point in waiting," Michaels said, standing up, "lets see if you can get out of this bed." Six couldn't agree more, he had always hated bed rest. He swung his legs over the side of the bed and rested his bare feet on the wood floor, it was well worn under his toes and surprisingly clean. Dr. Michaels offered him his hands but Six shook his head, he wanted to do this on his own.

The second he stood up he felt dizzier then he ever had before, he hated to admit it but he would have fallen on his face if it wasn't for Michaels grabbing his arms and supporting him while the dizziness passed. It did pass though, and he was able to stand without support.

"There you go, you're doing great," Michaels said pulling back, "it's a tall order, but let's see if you can walk"

Six glanced down at his feet, at Dog, who had positioned himself at his heel, and immediately felt dizzy again. He decided that looking down would not be helpful. He looked back at Dr. Michaels, then he just took a few steps. It was much easier then Dr. Michaels made it sound. That, at least, was relieving.

"Well would you look at that," Dr. Michaels said with a grin and a pat on the back "think you could make it to the kitchen for your tea? Down the hall second door on the right." Six nodded and immediately felt dizzy again, but not nearly as bad as the first time.

Six had to pause to lean on the wall a few times on his way to the kitchen but he did make it. The kitchen was just as bright as the make shift doctor's office he had just left, with sunlight streaming in from the window, it was almost impossible to see, so Six had to close his eyes.

"Oh!" said Alex "sorry, let me grab a blanket."

He brushed past Six on his way out of the room, and Six could hear him jog down the hall and back. He bushed past Six again to get back into the kitchen and Six heard the distinctively unpleasant sound of a chair scraping on wood flooring. A moment later things were darker, and he could open his eyes.

The room had the look of a perfect 1950's kitchen that had gone through the apocalypse, which to be fair, was possible. From what Six had seen of this world, it seemed like the Cold War had taken an early turn for the worst.

Alexander was standing on a chair, adjusting an old quilt over the large window on the opposite side of the kitchen. He stopped and pulled his hands back, moving slowly and watching carefully to make sure it didn't fall. Six saw something wiggle in his hood as he stood there, but Alex hopped off the chair and turned to face him before he could get a good look.

"Ok, that's set." he said, giving Six a thumbs up. It was a pointless statement, as Six could clearly see that, but Six didn't comment. Alex didn't seem to notice, as he just replaced the chair and climbed onto the counter to sit. He pulled a metal tea pot into his lab and pulled a pocket watch out of his hoody to check the time.

Six stiffened when he felt something brush against his ankles, he didn't want to look down and risk the dizziness that would likely come with the action. The bright smile on Alex's face when he looked down gave it away anyways.

"Hey puppy! Couldn't be away from Six for even a minute I see!" He said making grabby hands towards Dog who excitedly scrambled over to him, his tail rattling loudly as it wagged. He wasn't nearly tall enough to reach Alexander's perch, but that didn't stop him from trying. Six stepped into the room to move to the other side of Alex but he had to stop to lean on the fridge when another dizzy spell hit him, it passed quickly enough and he was able to get to the other side of Alex so he wouldn't have to look towards the light to see him.

His near fall hadn't seemed to bother Alex though, he was smiling just as brightly as ever.

"Check you out, man! Not even a day after being shot in the head and already on your feet!" Alex said, a bit louder than Six would have liked "I mean, the fact that the bullet didn't get past the skull probably helps, but hey, I know a girl who couldn't look down without puking for a month after getting hit in the head with a soccer ball so, like, not bad really!" Six only hummed in response. There was an awkward pause and Six couldn't help but feel like it was his fault, he's never been very good at talking to people. Alex just checked his pocket watch again.

"Could you grab the mugs behind you?" he asked, Six obliged quickly, setting the well battered mugs down next to him. A sweet minty smell filled the air as Alex poured the tea, it was unusual but nice, Six had never been a fan of the more bitter teas. Alex picked up one of the mugs and pushed the other towards Six.

"Would you mind if we switched?" he asked, his paranoia over possibly being poisoned kicking in again, Alex looked a little surprised but shrugged.

"Are you afraid of me poisoning you or something?" he joked as he handed his mug over.

"There was just an attempt on my life." he said, taking a sip of the tea. It was interesting in a good way, he had never had a raspberry mint blend before.

"Yeah… I feel you. So, how long have you been in this universe" Alex asked casually. Six was taken aback for a moment.

"That's an odd way to ask a person's age." he said, Alex shrugged again, that seemed to be a default gesture for him.

"That's not really what I'm asking, unless this isn't making any sense, in which case that's fine, I just made a wrong assumption"

"No, I think I know what you're talking about." Six had assumed that his displacement from his own dimension, or universe as Alexander called it, was due to Breach but he simply couldn't understand why anyone else would be here.

"Cool cool, so how long have you been here? What year was it back home when you got here?" Alex asked, Six wasn't quite sure if he could trust Alexander, but talking to someone else from his dimension would definitely be beneficial. Not to mention that the weathered condition of Alex's cloths and his apparent confidence in this situation pointed towards him having much more experience in this world, experience that Six desperately needed.

"About a month, and 2036, what about you?"

"I'm from 2022, and I don't know exactly how long I've been here, but it's definitely longer than like, fourteen years." He said. That was interesting, the nanite event was in 2030, so it seemed that whatever had caused them to end up here had nothing to do with nanites, that or Alexander was lying.

"So, what's up in the year 2036?" Six sipped his tea, he wasn't looking forward to explaining fourteen years of world change to someone who had literally no idea what the nanite event was, he didn't see much point to it anyways, it was all irrelevant to the situation they were in.

"I'd like to know more about this universe first." He said, Alex just shrugged again and gave no indication that he was annoyed about Six's refusal.

"Sure, sure" he said, once again repeating himself, Six wasn't sure how he felt about that particular quirk.

"So in case you haven't noticed, this place was super nuked, apparently American culture got stuck in the late fifties early sixties, and the cold war never got any better, and actually eventually became a resource war with China sometime after the USSR fell apart. America and China nuked each other, because I guess Nixon never won? I don't really know the exacts, but I guess the reason why doesn't really matter, we just have to deal with the world they left behind." That lined up fairly well with Six's understanding of this universe so far, but there where still holes. For one thing Dog was still sitting at their feet patiently, and Six was nearly certain that radiation didn't cause snake-coyotes.

"Of cores there are tons of other differences in this universe, like a mutagenic virus that makes things like Dog, and magic, and robot butlers"

"Magic?" he questioned, he could buy mutagenic viruses and robot butlers, but magic was a stretch.

"Yep, witches and ghosts and fairies, we've got it all," he says grinning "you and I happen to be two of those things, actually. A witch is anyone with a familiar, the proficiency in magic comes later, and fairies are just people from our world."

Six was starting to worry about how dependable Alexander was, either because he was crazy or because he was messing with him.

"And I know what you're thinking, this guy's either crazy or pulling my leg but really, I'm not it's just that now that we're in a different universe we no longer have to play by the rules of our original universe" Six just sipped his tea and nodded. Now is probably not a good time to comment on Alex's sanity. Besides, even though he'd only been awake for about thirty minutes he was too tired to deal with this.

Dr. Michaels walked in just then and opened the fridge,

"Thanks for grabbing me that sarsaparilla" he joked giving Alex's arm a light punch.

"Sorry, forgot about that, but hey can I ask how this aria is with witches?" Alex was quick to ask. Six watched Michaels face carefully for any sign that he's confused or joking,

"Far as I know, SunnySmiles is the only witch in this stretch of desert, but I'm sure there's some in Vegas, even if they are just tourists, but no one really gives y'all any trouble 'less they're with that crazy Ki-zar guy, or Ceaser? I don't know how you say it, but he's been stirring up trouble for everyone for months now," he shrugged "I'd just avoid anyone in a leather skirt in general if I was you"

"Cool, thanks for the heads up." Alex said, enthusiastic as always.

"Any time," he said closing the fridge and giving Six a nod, "you 'aut to come back to bed soon, you'll need some rest if you want to get back to normal" he suggests as he leaves.

He had seemed sincere the whole time, but Six still wasn't ready to believe in magic, but there was something else that Alex had said that caught his attention

"You said there are other people from our world here?" Alex's attention snapped back from the door to the hall,

"Yeah, course, if something happens once it's bound to happen again, I've meant at least five, here" he starts digging in his jacket pocket, "I have a list, names, (usually fake but take what you can get), where and when they're from, where and when I meant them, what they do for a living, all the basics" he pushed an old folded piece of paper into Six's hand, but when Six opened it, it was clear this had been a joke to Alex.

"This is gibberish." He said handing it back to Alexander, who looked incredibly confused, he took the page and skimmed it,

"I don't know what you're talking about, this is all plain English" he said handing it back. Six looked at it again, but it was still all gibberish.

"This is-" he sighed "look I don't like being messed with, I don't know why you thought you could trick me like this but it's not funny, I'm done." He put down his mostly empty mug and pushed away from the counter. The dizziness that hit was an unpleasant reminder of why he was here, listening to some mischievous kid try to trick him for fun.

"Whoa, hey" Alex said, in the time that Six was trying to regain his balance Alex jumped down from the counter. Six could finally tell that Alex was much smaller than him. He only barely breaks five feet, and he was very slight. If Six wasn't too dizzy to stand up strait then he probably wouldn't have too much difficulty getting Alex out of the way, unfortunately that wasn't the case.

"I'm not messing with you, I promise, but this whole reading thing could be a problem," he pressed a book, the one he was reading earlier, into Six's hands "just pick a paragraph and read it for me, ok? I really want to double check this."

The book had a picture of a boat sailing away through a still sea, but the title was nonsense. He flicks through the pages of the book but that was all gibberish too. He paused to try and decipher a paragraph under a picture of a lion, but the letters looked so foreign, he couldn't tell what was what. He glanced at Alex for any indication that this was some elaborate trick, but he was looking at Six with unbridled concern. Six didn't know what to say so he just closed the book and handed it back to Alexander.

"You can't read it then?" he asked,

"I told you I don't appreciate these kinds of jokes" he said, because this had to be a joke. There was no way that he couldn't read.

"Sure, man, I totally got a book printed in a language no one can read just to fuck with people who have been shot in the head." He snapped, crossing his arms "but really, I wouldn't fuck with you like that, this is important." he paused, maybe to allow Six the chance to say something or just to think about his next words.

"You should go back to bed. I'll think up a reading comprehension test for you while you do that, it's fine, everything is fine, I've taught people to read before, worst comes to worst you'll just have to relearn from the alphabet." He offered Six a small smile but Six didn't smile back. Dog rubbed his head against Six's ankle but Six was too tired to respond.

He just wanted to go to bed. His head hurt and he was tired and he has too much information that he had to sort through and he had a head injury and he couldn't read and he just wanted to go back to bed and sleep. He didn't even care if it was safe anymore, he just nodded and left the kitchen, Dog and Alex right behind him.

He laid down in the bed and pulled the covers up to his chin despite the heat, the weight was comfortable. He felt the bed dip as Alex sat down the edge and rested and hand on his arm and told him everything would be fine. Six knew that what he really meant is that things were not fine, but that acknowledging that would just make it worse.

 ** _?/?/? Good Springs_**

Holiday's trip back down the town was physically easier than the way up (no one likes walking uphill, especially in sand) but mentally, she was doing much more work than she was on the way up.

He mission had now become an investigation rather than a simple retrieval mission, and while White Knight gave her more than enough time for a retrieval, a week is a tight schedule for an investigation, so she was already planning some questions for the townsfolk.

The town was small, the only marked buildings where a shop and a saloon, both right next to each other, the other buildings all appeared to be houses. The saloon seemed like a good place to start, mostly because the wood burned sign on the door advertised it as open 24/7.

The saloon was just as run down on the inside as it looked from the outside, whole booths seemed to be missing, and when they were there the seat cushions looked like they were more patch than pleather. There was a sign at the bar that read "Need Something? Knock On The Emloy Door" with an arrow under it pointing to the right. And yes, just right of the bar was a door with a sign that must have once read Employees Only, but most of the letters had faded with age leaving just Emloy.

She knocked loudly and waited. The door swung open revealing a tired looking dark-haired woman. She didn't even bat an eye at the hazmat suit, just gave Holiday a warm but sleepy smile.

"Good morning hun, what are you doing up so late?" she asked closing the door behind her.

"I'm sorry to wake you up, but I just got into town and I was hoping you could help me out" so people here sleep during the day, that was good to know.

"It's fine hun, I'm always happy to help a traveler, I'm Trudy, by the way, do you want anything?" she said stepping behind the bar and motioning for Holiday to sit at one of the mismatched stools, which she did, grateful to be off her feet after a few hours of walking.

"No thank you, I'm just here to look for my friend, I think he came through here" she said pulling out a picture of Six and handing it to Trudy.

"This is a nice picture, you color this yourself?" she asked, Dr. Holiday just nodded politely, although she didn't really know what Trudy's talking about.

"Yeah, I know him, he's a bit odd, but nice enough, his friends are too" she said handing the photo back. Six had friends and a good reputation then, that wass good.

"Do you know where he is?" she asked slipping the picture back into her bag. Trudy just shrugged.

"He moves around a lot, but I think he stays in the city a lot, if he's not there you could probably find someone who knows where he is, or you could wait there until he comes back."

"You mean Vegas, right?" Holiday asked, Trudy gave her a small nod, "great, so I just have to go back down to the road and head in the direction it points out for Vegas."

"Oh no, we really should change that sign, Vegas is to the north, but you can't really go that way, too dangerous, all sorts of unpleasant animals that will have you dead before you get a shot off. What you really have to do is go south and follow the highway all the way around. There are good towns to stop at frequently enough, it's longer but it won't get you killed." She said as she rubbed her eyes.

"How long will that take?"

"Six, seven days? Less if you're really pushing it." She couldn't spend her whole week walking, but she also couldn't assume she'd survive the kinds of dangers that have a local telling her it's too dangerous

"Anyways you're much more likely to run into him on the way if you go south, he does work with the mail house in Primm" and wouldn't that be great, to just run into him on the way.

"Ok, thank you for the advice" Dr. Holiday said with a smile. She stood and brushed sand off her suit,

"You're not leaving right now, are you?" Trudy asked looking slightly more awake and concerned.

"I'm on a tight schedule, I only have a week." Holiday explained. Trudy bit her lip nervously and Holiday realized that she probably didn't want to miss out on a traveler's patronage, "I don't have the money to afford anything here anyway" she finished.

"No, no" Trudy said, "I'm fine if you can't buy anything, I'd just feel terrible if you got sick from the heat." She paused "I mean, you don't seem like you're from around here, so I don't know if you know, but the heat in the day here has killed lots of travelers, and it's getting to the hottest part of the day"

"Sure" Holiday said, it was nearing ten, so she had a few hours until the hottest part of the day, "but I really do need to go, how far from here is Primm?"

"A few hours walk, sun'll be right on top of you by the time you get there."

"That's fine, I have plenty of water, and if I get there before one I can avoid the worst of it and set out at night again" Trudy was still worrying her lip but gave Holiday a little nod,

"Just watch your back out there, lots of nasty lizards and bugs out there during the day, don't hesitate to kill anything that comes at you." She advised, Holiday nodded again and gave Trudy a warm smile that she couldn't see.

"Thank you again, you've been very helpful" Trudy just gave her a smile as she stepped out from behind the bar.

"You're welcome, Six is a good guy, you know, he deserves better than the kind of crap that usually happens to him." Trudy said as she slipped back through the employee's only door. Dr. Holiday wished she could ask what that meant but it was too late now, and she needed to get going if she wanted to make it to Primm before heat stroke killed her.

 ** _4/20/2286 Mount Desert Island_**

Rex woke up hungry and thirsty, but warm and dry, which he felt was worlds better than he was last time he was conscious when he was hungry and thirsty but also cold and wet and certain that he was going to die.

He opened his eyes slowly. Above him was a wood paneled ceiling, he was in a clean bed with an old thick quilt over him, next to the bed was a nightstand, on top of which was a basket lined with an old thin towel inside of which was his familiar, a large mutated raven with three sets eyes and two sets of wings. He looked much more ominous and intimidating than he actually was. There was a person besides his bed too. She was a mutant, which made sense, Elenore had told him there were no humans on the island. He felt foolish for assuming she had meant that they where the only people on the island. But still, there was a person here, someone who was not Elenore or Rex. She was tall, likely a good three feet taller than Rex, although that was hard to tell, as she was sitting in a rocking chair intently knitting, and Rex was laying down. She was a goat woman, with soft tan fur and small horns on her head and a long goat like face. Rex has never been good at estimating age, especially not in goat women, but he thought she was middle aged.

She finished her row and glanced at Rex, then did a double take, Rex felt bad for just sitting there and staring at her, but she seemed too shocked to notice, she opened her mouth then closed it.

"You are awake." She said, her voice was sweet and kind, but so was Elenore's. Rex gave her a little nod that was likely unnecessary, but it seemed to shake her from her surprise. She smiled gently and put her knitting down on the ground, not the night stand, a good choice, as his familiar had a bad habit of taking things that weren't his. With the knitting out of the way Rex could see the rabbit flopped over in her lap, likely a familiar of her own.

"I have stew for you, in the kitchen," she said, clapping her hands together "I'll go get it" she scooped up her rabbit and slipped out of the room. For a few minutes it was just him and his familiar, who was taking the time to preen. Rex was too tired and too on edge to get up and explore the room, but he glanced around. There was a second bed on the other side of the room, but it was well made and covered in dust, so he doubted anyone had used it in a while. Actually, most of the room was dusty, even the floor, he imagined that if he were to look over the edge of the bed he would see footprints in the dust leading from the door to the chair but leaning over the edge of anything sounded exhausting. He can hear foot steps coming back down the hall anyway.

"I am back," the goat woman said sitting on the edge of the bed with a wooden bowl in her hands. Paws? Regardless the stew she was carrying smelled wonderful. Then again, it had been so long since he'd eaten that Providence's soggy cafeteria spaghetti would've smelled good.

"Do you need help sitting up?" she asked, her voice seemed carefully crafted to be neutral and sweet, like she couldn't care less if Rex needed help with basic tasks. Rex did try to sit up, his arms shook as he pushed himself up but he managed to shimmy himself into a mostly upright position, goat woman smiled even more and placed the stew in his lap, the warmth of it seeped through the blanket.

Rex started eating, his hands where shaky but not so much that he couldn't feed himself. The goat woman moved back over to her chair and scooped up her rabbit and her knitting into her lap once again.

"My name is Josephine" she said "but most people call me Joe." Rex nodded, he should've tell her his name, but it had been a long time since he'd talked to anyone and he felt like if he tried everything would come out strange and jumbled. That was fine though, because Josephine paused just long enough to realize that Rex wasn't going to introduce himself and kept going.

She was good at filling silence, and Rex learned that she lived with her husband, who found Rex passed out in the wild while he was looking for forage. They were in a small town, which, as far as she knew was the only town on the island. Rex was done with his soup by the time she finished explaining. She hadn't given him very much, and he wanted more but he knew that he would probably not be able to keep anything else down.

"I am going to go tell my husband you are awake," she said taking the empty bowl from Rex, "I will give you more when I come back, if you can keep this down I will give you bread too, but for now you should get some rest."


End file.
